The 5pm Post – Fundraiser for “a 120-page coffee-table book from our kids’ food memories”

From an email:

“We at Lifting Voices have an enormously exciting project underway, and I’m wondering if I might ask for your help.

We work with under-served kids in DC. As you might expect, folks tend to think of our kids as “those” kids, who live in “those” neighborhoods–basically, folks believe they have nothing in common with kids in high-poverty neighborhoods. But, as you know, our kids are funny and delightful and wonderfully human.

We need a project that will bring communities together. So . . . what brings people together?

We are making a 120-page coffee-table book from our kids’ food memories. We selected just 10 kids out of the 200 we serve and got them to write an essay about a food that’s meaningful to them.

Then we got a kick-ass team of photographers and a high-profile street artist to contribute gorgeous photos and illustrations that bring their words to visual life. THEN we got Jose Andres, Chef Spike from Top Chef, and Robert Egger at DC Central Kitchen to contribute essays. All these folks are putting their hand to the wheel because they believe in this project.

We’re almost to the finish line in seeing this project to fruition. We need $5,000 to publish, and we’ve gotten hooked up with a terrific crowd-funding site called Kickstarter.

On Kickstarter, people can contribute a tiny bit of money and receive rewards from the project. One of our rewards is a PDF chapter from the book, and another is a free burger or slice of pizza at Chef Spike’s restaurants. :)”